What Matters Most
by Jasmin Kaiba
Summary: AUSakura's life is perfect,till one day she learns that a madmen organization is targeting her best friend.Suddenly she's faced with the prospect of losing BOTH her best friends because her relationship with Sasuke's brother isn't so platonic anymore.R


**What Matters Most**

**by Jasmin Kaiba

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_Chapter 1: And This Is Where We Start

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The sunny April morning in Konoha was greeted with a madly laughing Uchiha Shisui as he sped away from an indigent Haruno Sakura speeding after him with killing intent. Her long pink hair was flaring around her wildly, unbound and luxurious. The Uchiha clansman run faster as she started gaining on him and soon took to the rooftops to avoid dancing around vendors and carts as they entered the market area. The mad kunoichi jumped up after him fastening her feet to the walls with chakra, unable to jump as high as he, but keeping up with only a few feet distance. Growing tired of chasing the prankster around Konoha while he disturbed late-sleepers with his howling laughter, she channeled chakra in her legs, gained speed and closing the distance jumped at the unsuspecting Uchiha landing soundly on his back.

Shisui startled as a light weight landed on his back, his arms instinctively going around, grabbing the kunoichi's thighs, securing her on his back like years ago when she'd been a child and he her favorite 'bouncy horsy'. Only this time he didn't hear her laughing in his ear and demanding 'faster, faster' as he sped along the District earning them reprimanding glances from the other Uchiha who they disturbed in their wake. This time around the kunoichi growled in his ear and he stiffened. She'd caught him and he was as good as dead.

"Alright, Uchiha," she panted in his ear. "The fun is over. Now hand it back and nothing bad will happen." One small, white hand appeared expectantly in front of his face as her other arm wrapped around his neck to keep her balanced.

He sighed and let go of one of her thighs to fish out a red cloth out of his pocket, placing it in her waiting hand. A second later he felt a stinging slap on the top of his head as she smacked him for good measures and then her weight was gone from his back. He turned to face her just as a voice made them both jump in surprise. "What are you doing?"

Both whirled around to face Uchiha Itachi as he looked at them with mild confusion. _Great_, Shisui thought, _she's gonna tell him what happened and I'll have to listen to one of his lectures again_.

Sakura, as though reading Shisui's mind, smirked devilishly and faced the younger Uchiha with a frown-pout on her face. She was going to play the cute card with the younger cousin, it always worked like a charm, and Shisui would be in bigger trouble than she could ever prepare him. "He broke into my apartment and stole my hitai-ate as I was showering, Tachi-nii. I had to chase his around Konoha twice before I finally caught him and now I'm _really_ late for meeting my team and even Kakashi's arrived by now and will scold me for sure!"

Itachi's eyes softened as he looked at his brother's best friend. The girl had grown up around them in the Uchiha District after meeting and befriending Sasuke at six. Back at those times Sasuke spent all of his time around him and Shisui and later dragged Sakura along and Itachi was as familiar with her as with Sasuke. She'd been at their house more times than he'd been able to count for sleep-over, for dinner, playing, training or simply following their mother around as Mikoto did her daily house chores. Sakura had grown up without a mother and Mikoto had always wanted a daughter and had fallen in love with the pink-haired girl at first glance when Itachi had brought her home along with Sasuke when the younger boy had first entered the Academy. Even Fugaku seemed to melt when she was around; such was the power of her sparkling twin emeralds and sweet smile. But Shisui and Sasuke were the ones she had wrapped around her pinky fingers. His younger brother wouldn't think twice about eating dirt if she only asked nice enough and smiled at him and Shisui had been following her around for years doing anything to make her smile and laugh, going as far as to carry her on his back through Konoha when she wanted to play 'bouncy horsy'. Too bad the girl, now that she'd grown up, didn't appreciate Shisui's sense of humor anymore and constantly landed him in trouble. Her apprenticeship with the Godaime was probably at fault that the pink-haired sunshine had lost some of her playfulness in exchange for seriousness.

Sakura looked at the Uchiha heir as the dark-haired man fixed his older cousin with a light glare. He was dressed for training in the sleeveless and high-necked ANBU regulation shirt, black pants, calf high boots and fingerless gloves in the same style as Kakashi, fully armed with a katana strapped to his back and hitai-ate firmly in place on his forehead. The first thing Itachi did every morning was train, too bad Shisui didn't posses the same work-ethics. The older Uchiha was dressed normally, in a dark gray high and wide collared shirt with the Uchiha fan on the back, like the one Sasuke frequented when he was twelve, only Shisui's was sleeveless, black pants that reached only to his calves and ninja sandals. His hitai-ate was dangling from his pocket, fastened there with a senbon and only his pouch was present, he'd left his kunai holster at home, probably too lazy to wrap the bandages around his thigh, _again_. He'd be hearing from Itachi about more than just pulling stupid pranks on her, she was too sure. And if the look on the younger Uchiha's face was any indignation as he took in Shisui's apparel, the long-haired prankster would find himself at the sharp end of Itachi's target practice more often than not for the next week they both had off.

"Shisui, I waited for an hour on the training grounds and you never showed up. Could it be that you decided to forgo training with me in favor of keeping Sakura from _hers_?" Itachi ground out tightly and Shisui gulped, he'd forgotten that he'd promised Itachi to train with him in the morning. He'd seen Ino when he'd gone out that morning to buy himself some breakfast and had been reminded of Sakura's story why her hitai-ate was red when her outfit was usually black and had decided to test Sakura's bonds with the piece of memory from her childhood. He wouldn't have thought that the pinkette would chase him around Konoha _twice_ with killing intent if he didn't return the hitai-ate fastened on the hair-band her first real friend had given her. He should have known that Sakura probably loved that scarp of worn-out cloth more than him... Which wasn't true, but suited his mood just fine at the moment. Who ever said that the Uchiha didn't exaggerate? Uchiha Shisui certainly did and was absurdly proud of it.

He didn't get to apologize to Itachi or even think of an absurd excuse for his stunt (he spent enough time around Kakashi to pick up the older man's affinity with completely ridiculous and glaringly untrue stories for every single stupidity he pulled), when Sasuke popped in on them in a puff of gray smoke and looked around, finally setting his black gaze on Sakura.

"Sakura, what are you doing? We're waiting for you, the dobe's started freaking out that you've been abducted by your fan boys and Kakashi is proud and gloating because he managed to come _before_ _you_."

Sakura was about to apologize when Itachi cut her off. "Shisui is at fault for that, Otouto. We will accompany you to your training place and our cousin will apologize to Kakashi-sempai and Naruto-kun for keeping them waiting."

Sasuke looked at his brother and nodded before stealing a glance at a sulking Shisui and at a glaring Sakura that was tying her hitai-ate in her hair and could imagine what his cousin had pulled off this time.

They arrived at training ground 7 within a few minutes and got to witness Naruto being taken down by his own clone that performed a Rasengan. The blond trouble-maker growled before dismissing the victorious clone and glaring up a tree where Kakashi was sprawled with his long limbs bent towards his body, head resting against the trunk in a utterly uncomfortable and unnatural slouched pose as he concentrated intently at the green backed book in his hand, not sparing Naruto any mind.

"Kaka-sensei!" rung Naruto's whine across the grounds as the silver-haired jounin proceeded to ignore him in favor of his porn book. But the younger man was the definition of determination as he shook a fist in Kakashi's direction, growing increasingly irritated with his team-leader. "You promised to teach me the Raikiri! Now get down here and do that!"

Sakura and Sasuke exchanged glances; pretty sure that Kakashi hasn't made such a promise _even_ drunk when he was very much talk-active and gullible enough for them to get him to promise them just about anything. He'd _always_ clearly refused teaching Naruto the Raikiri or the Chidori, saying that _one_ highly destructive jutsu was enough for the clumsy kyuubi vessel. But Naruto always kept bugging.

"I never made such a promise, Naruto. Please learn to distinguish your dreams from the reality." drawled Kakashi in a bored monotone that made Sakura giggle and Shisui snicker. They were clearly heard as Kakashi looked away from his book and one charcoal grey eye met a pair of amused emeralds and his face shifted in that familiar happy eye-crease with the smile beneath his mask. "Ah, Sakura-chan," he called out to her, drawing Naruto's attention to them as well, effectively preventing whatever the blond might have had to say to Kakashi's not so subtle insult. "You picked up more from me than I thought you would. You're two and half hours late."

Sakura growled and glared at him, feeling embarrassed enough to attempt smashing his face in, _or_ chasing Shisui's ass around Konoha again, this time to ram a chakra laden fist through his skull. But Itachi spared her from doing either as he not so subtly cleared his throat and nudged Shisui with his elbow.

The older Uchiha flushed a little pink at being treated like a misbehaving kid by his _younger_ cousin, but said nothing of it as he bowed to the masked jounin. "I apologize, Kakashi-sempai. It was my fault that Sakura-chan was late for training. I played a childish prank on her that resulted in her chasing after me through Konoha till she got the item I jokingly stole from her back. It was not my intention to keep you from your training."

Kakashi looked highly amused, or as amused as _Kakashi_ could possibly look, for a moment before jumping from his relaxing spot to the ground in his trade-mark slouch with one hand carelessly stuffed in a pocket while the other returned his book to his pouch. Shrugging in Shisui's direction he quickly pulled his vest off, followed by the Jounin regulation long-sleeved shirt, leaving him in the same sleeveless shirt as Itachi, only that his had a mask attached to it. His students looked at him strangely as he uncovered his scarred Sharinan eye and returned their looks with a blank one of his own "What?" he asked without sounding even slightly curious, "It's hot, and I'm not planning to spar with Sasuke-kun stuffed in too much cloth."

That was true enough. The mid-April day was too hot for that time of the year, but Fire Country's climate has always been more humid and warmer than the others'. The rest of Team Kakashi and the two Uchiha clansmen have also dressed accordingly to the weather, though Itachi suspected as he glanced at Sakura, that she might be too hot once she started training. She was wearing little cloth, that was for sure, but it was black and heavy, not a good combination under the glaring sun. The others seemed to get on what he was thinking and looked at Sakura as well. She was wearing her usual armored black-shirt that showed plenty of cleavage and ended just at her ribs, over a mesh shirt that covered her midriff and disappeared under the cloth of her black shorts and white medic-apron. She'd managed to find shorts even shorter than her apron, Itachi noticed, they ended at least an inch higher than the hem of the full, heavy apron. Her legs were left bare to the knees where black knee-guards covered them, followed closely by black leather boots that reached just below them. Her arms were covered in black fingerless gloves that went up few inches over her elbows and hid her skin almost completely. Somewhere along the way there she'd tied her long pink hair in its usual pig tails at the nape of her neck, much like her shishou and had returned her hitai-ate to its place at the top of her head, holding her bangs back from her eyes.

One might think that she would go crazy in the heat covered in so much armored cloth, but all of them knew that Sakura would _never_ fight without her gloves and boots that hid chakra-triggered lethal poisoned blades within them that surprised and finished off an enemy in seconds. Her gloves were slightly raised at the knuckles and if one were to inspect them they would see tiny holes in the cloth. There she hid more lethal weapons. Four silver carrier senbons on each hand each filled with enough poison to kill a bull. Only those were special senbon she'd gotten from Tenten, Konoha's Weapon Mistress, and with the appropriate seals each senbon was revealed to carry at least ten more of the toxic needles. Sakura worked with medical-ninjutsu, chakra enhanced taijutsu, high-level genjutsu and poison, and each and every one of them knew that if they were ever to stand across her in a real fight to death they wouldn't come out alive even if they were victorious. One single graze of her poisoned weapons meant certain death and Sakura's close-range fighting style ensured that an enemy would get at least one cut from said weapon, and when he did it was over.

Sakura's fighting style was also quite based on speed, she'd trained almost all her life with Sharingan users and to trick them one had to be incredibly fast or attack from their blind spots. She'd learned more about evading the Sharingan since starting her training with the Godaime and Itachi had seen her pull tricks against him, Shisui and Sasuke that never ceased to amaze him. She'd won against Shisui and Sasuke quite often, realizing that strategizing against Sasuke didn't work and resorted to simply over-powering him, and that the best way to beat Shisui was to literary keep disappearing from the battle-field, so she'd bugged Kakashi until he'd taught her the body flicker technique. She hadn't won against _him_, yet. All her strategies have failed and over-powering didn't work either, he was too quick for her. She evaded his Sharingan directly, refusing to make eye contact when fighting at all costs and the few times he'd managed to trap her in a genjutsu she'd broken it before he could make use of the situation. Itachi knew that she was just as smart as him, sometimes even smarter, and yet he always wiped the floor with her. It unnerved him a little. Of course he wouldn't want to be beat soundly by a delicate pink-haired little blossom as Shisui had eloquently put it after his first defeat to said blossom, but the knowledge that she could be the strongest kunoichi in the world and that concentrating her efforts on beating him and the Copy Ninja possibly held her back, didn't sit well with him at all. And so, to ensure that Sakura could hone her skills beating his cousin senseless and indulging her in a little revenge like the good big brother figure that he was, he made the infamous Copy Nin a proposition.

"How about Shisui and I join in for your training, to make up for the wasted time, Kakashi-sempai?"

Kakashi fixed his mismatched gaze on the Uchiha prodigy and read just what the ANBU Captain had in mind effortlessly. He'd heard from Sasuke and Naruto how Sakura enjoyed sparring with Shisui and pulling all sorts of tricks on him and had become interested in seeing such a match. The Uchiha was certainly no easy opponent, any ANBU Op ever was, and it only added that he was an Uchiha of near Itachi's caliber and knowing that his pink-haired temperamental former student had managed to beat such a fighter had piqued Kakashi's interest. He had no problem agreeing to Itachi's little plan.

"Of course, Itachi-san. We would be honored."

The Uchiha nodded and glanced at his cousin. Shisui knew instantly what was coming. Itachi had a serious sister complex and seeing that he didn't have a sister made things worse. Considerably even, since the substitute sister had a sadistic streak as strong as Itachi's. It always spelled trouble for Shisui in **BIG BOLD** letters.

"Shisui," Itachi addressed him in that soft, calm voice that made Shisui want to run for his life. "You will spar with Sakura, to make up for your foolishness earlier this morning."

Seeing Sakura's gleeful grin didn't help ease Shisui nerves, it only made him tenser. She'd go all out to make him pay and Itachi knew it. That was probably the only reason he'd suggested training with Team Kakashi.

Flashing Itachi a brilliantly grateful smile, Sakura turned her sparkling emeralds on Shisui who had the pleasure watching them darken as thoughts on _how_ she was going to make him regret ever thinking of playing pranks on her raced through her quick mind. The girl was a born strategist, not Nara's or Itachi's caliber by far, but clever and rational enough to come up with a strategy in a moment's notice and use all the attributes nature and hard training have gifted her with against her opponents. It was really too bad that Shisui had a soft spot for the girl or he might have not been so hard pressed using some of his more deadlier techniques against her. He didn't go easy on her, that was for sure, but every time he hesitated in using something that could possibly injure her, she used the situation for herself and injured him in turn. She had no qualms breaking a few bones in his body on training sessions. Not with him or anyone else for that matter. He'd watched an impromptu spar between her Sasuke once, and the outcome hadn't been pretty. Sasuke had become cocky after easily rendering all her strategies useless that in turn had angered the girl so much that she'd let her rage take over and turned the tables on Sasuke. She was a fighter of brute force after all, even if she usually fought with certain finesse only training with someone like Itachi could bring her, when emotions came up in a fight, Sakura tended to blank out and let Inner Sakura take over. And that version of her was merciless, brutal and didn't know friend from foe. After Sasuke had managed pissing her off, Sakura had in a brilliant display of boiling hot rage made short process of the Uchiha training grounds, leaving Sasuke with only the possibility to move through the tress while she stomped her way through debris and cracks in the ground. That had slowed the young Uchiha enough for her to catch him, and than things had taken a turn for the worse. Sasuke had attempted to deliver a punch when she'd suddenly appeared before him, miscalculated his and her speed, giving her chance to seize his wrist. A fatal mistake. Sasuke's scream when she'd broken every bone in his wrist and forearm with her crushing grip had alarmed Itachi, Mikoto and Fugaku who'd come running from the house and had been greeted with the sight of Sasuke jumping away from a bristling Sakura, only to have her follow him. He'd been shocked enough by the intense pain that he didn't have the time to react when she's come at him, slamming her knee into his uninjured arm, breaking his elbow and two bones, followed by a hard kick in the back that had broken Sasuke's ribs and sent him flying. If Itachi hadn't caught him in mid-flight, the boy might have broken his back and died on spot.

And despite Sasuke's screams as Itachi agitated some of his injuries setting him gently on the ground, Sakura had been the worst sight to see. After her rage had ebbed and she'd regained her mind, Sakura had screamed herself as she saw what she'd done with Sasuke. She'd gone deadly pale in a matter of seconds and they'd feared she might black out, but she'd gotten a grip of herself, and with tears flooding her cheeks and stammering how sorry and what a terrible person she was, she'd set on healing Sasuke right away. Repairing broken bones was difficult for any medic as it required much chakra and concentration, but she'd been so terrified by what she'd done to her best friend that she'd poured all of chakra in Sasuke, restoring him completely within minutes before chakra depletion settled in and she lost consciousness.

After that Itachi had talked to the Hokage and Tsunade and Kakashi have taken it upon themselves to solve Sakura's double personality problem. Right now the Inner Persona wasn't as pronounced anymore, thanks to her mentors encouraging Sakura to be herself and not how she thought people would want her to be. That she's temperamental and more often than not violent is a fact they've learned at accept. It's easier to deal with small temper tantrums and black eyes than near death experiences any day.

It still didn't make fighting Sakura any less dangerous or humiliating for Shisui. And he was about to fight he yet again, and probably be beaten into next week. That he deserved it, didn't occur to the prankster as he watched Sakura adjust her gloves with a sadistic gleam in her pretty emerald eyes.

Kakashi nodded his assent and Shisui felt his blood run cold, feverishly wishing that the ex-ANBU would limit the match to taijutsu only and ban Sakura from using her chakra or her poisons for that matter. Even if she healed him immediately afterwards, having experienced the effect her venom dripping weapons once was more than enough to satisfy any curiosity Shisui might have had. But the Copy Ninja apparently had other ideas.

"Match one on one, full on out. Everything's allowed, no time limit, fight till you drop or give up."

Who knew that the seemingly happy-go-lucky man of thousand jutsu was a sadistic fuck? It was high time for Shisui to begin complaining.

"No fair, you guys! She's gonna go all out on me and I'll get reacquainted with the infernal hospital beds once again thanks to her brutal training fights. Limit the jutsu usage, Kaka-sensei!"

Kakashi noted idly that even the Uchiha had picked up on Sakura's _affectionate_ nickname for him, but said nothing about it. The girl had been calling him that since she was fourteen and others have began using it too over time, sometimes even Ino dropped her usually polite Kakashi-sensei/sempai for the Sakura approved version and he'd learned to cope with it. Shisui was as much a playful child as Naruto and Sakura so it didn't bother Kakashi much, but if Sasuke and Itachi _ever_ called him that he was going to have a serious word with his only female student.

"A training fight is not a fight if it isn't hard and brutal, Shisui-kun. What's the use of training if you don't reach your limits and learn to stretch them?"

Shisui gaped at the stoic man and the other three members of Team Kakashi snickered having been subjected to Kakashi's training methods for years, the man was a slave-driver and each and every one of them have been going home sore, bloody and in pain night for night for far longer than they were willing to remember. But in the end it had all paid out. If Kakashi hadn't built up their stamina, drilling them with exercises and fights till they dropped, Sasuke wouldn't have been able to pick up on Lee's speed and taijutsu techniques so quickly, nor would he have learned the Chidori and developed Chidori Nagashi so early on; Naruto would probably have never learned to walk on water and things like the Kuchiyose no Jutsu and the Rasengan would have been impossible for him; and Sakura would have never put up with Tsunade's training methods and wouldn't be the almost legendary kunoichi she is today. Kakashi's teaching methods might be hard and unforgiving, but they also made sure that those he trained built up incredible stamina and were ready to fight at any given notice, just like him.

"Let it drop, Shisui," Sakura said flippantly, fingering one long pig-tail coyly. "Kaka-sensei is the hardest teacher in all of Konoha. He makes us do those things every day. We've beaten each other to a pulp repeatedly for years and have grown quite resistant to fatigue and pain. Tachi-nii, however, has been going easy on you. You don't have half my stamina. Let's bet that you'll be out of breath and ready to drop before I even break a sweat."

Whoever said that the temper tantrums and the short fuse were the only things she picked up from Tsunade? Sakura prided herself on loving a good bet and strong cup of sake just as much as her shishou, only she won all her bets and stopped on the sake while she still could think straightly. She was Tsunade's star pupil, the Mini-Tsunade through and through and Shisui was going to learn that the hard way.

It was Kakashi that put an end to her trying to humiliate the Uchiha further... by adding to the humiliation himself.

"Ok, Sakura-chan, you can pummel him now."

Apparently no one really believed in _him_ or _his_ skills anymore, least of all the little kunoichi that was all too eager to pummel him in front of an impressive audience.

"Shannaro!" she pumped her fist into the air and Shisui only hoped that his uncle never, _ever_ found out about those disastrous fights. He'd lose the little respect he'd managed to gain after endless years of hard work.

They faced off.

She stood a few feet across from him, scowl firm in place as she checked her gloves one last time. She rarely got into any position when facing an Uchiha in battle, even her stance could give her away to their Sharingan, and she'd learned that the hard way. Nonetheless, Shisui activated his bloodline limit, black tomoe swirling lazily in a crimson sea, appeasing her, willing her to make a mistake and look him in the eye. But she was too smart for that. She knew that the Sharingan only needed a second long meeting of their eyes to become hypnotic and render her unable to look away.

That too she'd learned the hard way, the first time she'd managed to convince Itachi to spar with her. It had been a short fight. Itachi had caught her in a genjutsu the moment they'd locked their eyes. Shisui and Sasuke who'd looked on, had only waited for her to black out, but she'd surprised them. After a full minute of enduring whatever illusion Itachi had placed upon her, she'd moved her hands in a familiar seal and muttered 'Kai!', effectively breaking Itachi's jutsu. But Itachi had been anticipating that, unlike their audience who'd only gaped, and had attacked her lightening quick. Breaking a high-class, Sharingan cast illusion requires an insane amount of chakra and Sakura had been too drained to evade the attack. Itach had landed a swift kick to her stomach that had rendered her unconscious and gotten him into trouble with Mikoto who'd scolded her eldest son that '_you do _not_ kick a young lady in her stomach, despite it being a fight, Itachi. I've raised you to be gentleman, please do make me think that I have failed somehow, somewhere, or I will be gravely disappointed.'_

Now Sakura stood there, hips cocked to the side, hands upon them, just waiting for him to do anything, eyes fixed on his collar. She never took her eyes off him and never met his gaze. That tactic always worked against him, he just hoped that this time she'd have more mercy than the last time.

She didn't.

The moment she'd sensed that he wasn't entirely focused on her, Sakura sprung into action. She jumped up and sent a few dozen kunai and shuriken raining down on him. He evaded the deadly projectiles and lost sight of her. In that second she flickered out and sought the cover of the trees around the training ground.

Itachi smirked from his position on the sidelines. She'd used this technique the last time she'd fought him. He'd caught up on it in the nick of time and was curious if Shisui would too.

Shisui was looking around the battle field, Sharingan spinning, trying to locate her. He didn't need to. The pink haired terror came flying at him from the woods, arms crossed in front of her, two scythe-like blades leering out of her gloves at him, a green substance dripping down from the sharp blades. Poison.

Knowing that if he tried to get out of the way she'd turn around at the last second and he'd be caught by the blades in her boots instead; Shisui drew out two kunai and faced her front on.

Itachi was amused. His cousin was concentrating so intently on Sakura's weapons that he completely ignored the girl herself. If he'd as much as bothered to _look_ at her he would have seen that a clone was charging at him. The real one had used a jutsu Kakashi had taught her and disappeared underground the same moment her clone had attacked.

The same second the clone's poisoned blades met Shisui's kunai the real Sakura stopped directly under her enemy's feet. Smirking to herself she flew through the seals for a genjutsu and waited with baited breath. If Shisui was concentrated on her clone enough, it would work.

Their blades clashed and Shisui stood his ground, happy that she hadn't put chakra behind her attack. She jumped away from him for a second, probably to prepare another attack and.... flickered out of sight again.

Her clone jumped away from Shisui and Sakura activated her jutsu, dismissing her clone at the same time. The illusion made Shisui believe that she'd used the body flicker technique. She waited for a seconds and then Shisui started scanning the woods with his Sharingan, looking for her. Her jutsu needed only a few seconds to root and become completely undistinguishable. Such a simple illusion could trick even the Sharingan. Satisfied that it had worked she formed a few more seals.

Naruto gasped as the Uchiha brothers and Kakashi smirked. Suddenly hand had shot out from underground and had seized Shisui ankles, effectively pulling him down and burying him neck-deep into the ground as the Uchiha still was caught in her illusion and didn't even get what happened. Sakura appeared before her opponent in the same second, dispelling her genjutsu and shooting the still dazed Shisui and smug look.

She turned around and all hell broke lose.

Angry that he'd been tricked again, Shisui gathered as much chakra as he could spare in his legs and freed himself, charging at the girl that had turned her back on him, foolishly thinking that she'd already won.

Only she hadn't.

Shisui drew his fist and punched. But she was already gone and he grazed only the air. Hearing Naruto's loud gasp he looked at their audience not understanding what they were gaping at.

Behind her opponent, Sakura smirked and drew her fists up to her face.

Itachi watched her intently and tensed as he saw the telltale gleam of her senbon in the sun. Four deadly needles on the back of each hand peeked out of the gloves and lightening fast she grabbed them, and sent them out towards Shisui. Beside him Kakashi caught on and shouted, "Take cover!"

That had alerted Shisui who looked behind him the same moment the others dove away only to see eight glistening silver needles fly at him. He didn't have the time to even say shit as Sakura made three seals and muttered something under hear breath. Suddenly there were countless poison-bearers raining down on him. He threw himself to the ground on his side, his leg and arm up, to protect as much of his body as possible as the sharp slim death-bringers pelted down on him.

When it was over, Itachi, Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke jumped out from behind their cover and run to Shisui who was laying motionless on the ground, countless senbon embedded into his flesh. For a tense, horrifying moment they stood still, a cold feeling creeping up on them, she'd killed him.

Then Sakura broke the silence. "Oh, come on you guys! I can't believe you'd think I'd actually hurt him!"

They looked at her standing few feet away and she huffed before forming a seal and muttering 'Kai!' Suddenly all the needles were gone and Shisui was sound asleep on the ground.

"It was a genjutsu, you idiots! I cast one the moment I've gone underground, catching all of you in it, just to see your reaction. Everything that happened from the second Shisui attacked me from behind was an illusion. As he jumped out I cast another genjustu on him and put him to sleep. Everything else was only a figment of imagination."

* * *

"Still sulking?" Sasuke smirked at his best friend as she looked up at him from her position on the back veranda of his house where she'd been staring at her pond, her favorite thinking spot.

"I wasn't _sulking_," replying Sakura as if repulsed by the word, when in fact she had been pouting since returning from the training grounds.

"Sure you were. See?" chuckled Sasuke, sitting beside her and flicking her pouted lips with his index finger. "That's called sulking and it's childish."

She scowled and made to smack him, but he easily evaded. "Bite me," was her retort.

Her best friend smirked and gently closed his teeth around her thumb that was still hovering near his face. His smirk only widened as she squeaked and pulled her hand away hastily.

"You bit me!" she shrieked, cradling her hand against her chest, as if he'd hurt her, and glared indignantly at him, pink dusting her pale cheeks.

Sasuke's smirk stayed in place as he closed his eyes and leaned against the shougi door behind him. "You said I should, didn't you?"

For a moment she was left gaping at him before she resumed her glare and turned to get a better look at him. "No! I said 'bite me' as if in 'fuck you', and you know it! You're just a bastard out to annoy me!"

He wasn't fazed at all. Sakura's crude language was the norm as was her yelling when he managed to rile her up, and that wasn't very difficult, considering her extremely short fuse. She sure was fun to annoy; he enjoyed getting on her nerves with little things that set her eyes ablaze and her potty mouth free. She wasn't opposed to smacking him either, but he mostly managed to get away before she could do it. If he didn't consider it beneath him, he might have taken up on playing pranks on her like Shisui, but that was _too_ childish for him and besides getting her riled up so she yelled at him but forgot about it in a minute was one thing, and getting her angry enough to consider revenge was another, and he didn't want to _ever_ experience that again. He liked his best friend how she was, gentle, kind and compassionate, even if extremely temperamental. He never wanted that twisted Inner Persona to corrupt sweet Sakura again.

"And you're childish, so what?" he taunted further.

"Ass!" she was steadily getting louder and he knew that somebody was going to come and check on them every minute.

"Now, now. Be nice, Sakura-chan."

She glared harder. "Don't come at me with Kaka-sensei imitations, you can't pull him off half as well as Naruto can, or Shisui for that matter."

At the mention of Shisui's name she fell silent and he opened his eyes to look at her.

"Sakura, about Shisui..." he started, but she didn't let him finish.

"I can't believe you'd think that I would launch my senbon at Shisui. How can you guys even think that? Goodness, I know how deadly those needles are, I made the poison myself! Do you really think that I would ever use it against one of you?"

He looked at her luminous eyes and felt his chest constrict a little. She would never hurt one of them intentionally; she loved them too much, and besides Sakura wasn't a person to just hurt people because they played pranks on her. But he also knew that Sakura wasn't always under full control of herself. That other personality inside her head, the second soul, Ino had said, wasn't as warm and kind as his Sakura. That other Sakura was unstable and more than a little crazy, he knew, she'd almost killed him. He didn't hold it against Sakura, it wasn't her fault, he himself was a little at fault for provoking her, but he still felt weary of her when she was angry or irritated. Who knew when Inner Sakura might resurface again? Kakashi had said that the Inner Person was a danger to Sakura as well, and he didn't want his best friend to be hurt by something in her head that was the product of a hard childhood.

"I know that, Sakura. You would never do anything to hurt us, not intentionally. But..." he trailed off, but Sakura caught on. She scooted closer to him and grasped his arm in one hand, leaning against the door as well.

"You mean, you thought Inner Sakura might have appeared again."

It wasn't a question. They both knew what the other was thinking at the moment.

"Yes." He said softly and she sighed, leaning her head on his shoulder and grasping his arm with both hands, as if reassuring him.

"She won't be coming back, Sasuke-kun. She was only there because I was ashamed of how violent I am and was trying to hide it. She represented my true self, in a twisted exaggerated way. I guess she was my mind's way of compensating with me repressing my true feelings and thought for so long, only that the older I got my feelings grew stronger and Inner Sakura fed off on them, becoming uncontrollable. Where once she'd been a part of me that helped me cope with some things, she became a burden and eventually a danger not only to myself but to other because the angrier I got the stronger she became and I lost control of her that day."

He looked down on her and found her gazing off in the space as if she'd forgotten he was there. But after a second she continued.

"I'm different now, Sasuke-kun. I'm not ashamed of myself anymore and I don't hide my feelings either. I'm proud of what I've become, violent, temperamental and all. If others have a problem with that, I don't care. I love myself the way I am, and the only opinions that matter to me are yours, Tachi-nii's, Kaka-sensei's, Naruto's, shishou's, Shisui's, Miko-baa's, Fugaku-sama's and a few of our other friends'. And I know that you guys like me the way I am, right?"

He smiled a little. She may be more self-confident than before, but she still sought out their acceptance.

"Yes, we like just the way you are, Sakura. And I never wish for the Inner Person to appear again. I don't want to lose my best friend to something like that."

She smiled at him brilliantly before lifting his arm and snuggling against him under it. He didn't have any problems with that and pulled her closer, enjoying her warmth.

Eventually they drifted off in the afternoon sunlight, glad to be together and healthy, basking in their friendship.

* * *

The sun was going down as Itachi found them, fast asleep, nestled into each other like when they were kids. A small smile pulled at the corner of his lips. Truly only Sakura would be and is able to get his brother to lower his walls completely around another person. This was the first time he'd seen Sasuke so openly giving and receiving attention since the boy was twelve and obsessed with besting him. He'd given that thought up, but Itachi still felt that their relationship was strained.

Maybe, just maybe, the small pink-haired spit-fire would be able to mend their bond. If Sasuke let her. In Itchi's mind was no doubt that _he'll_ let her do whatever she wanted.

Watching as the warm breeze played with her soft coral tresses, the Uchiha prodigy marveled at how beautiful the small, awkward six year old he'd found with Sasuke that faithful evening years ago has become. She was truly breathtaking, in every sense of the word.

Allowing himself a little liberty he usually never would, Itachi bent down and ran gentle fingers through her silky bangs, closing his mesmerizing black eyes as she sighed a little and leaned into his touch. Looking at her again he let his fingers ghost over her petal soft cheek before getting a grip of himself and gently shaking her awake.

* * *

**AN: Hello! This is my first ItaSaku **_**ever**_** that I actually have written completely. Well at least the first two chapters. My every other attempt ended at a few pages that I never finished.**

**This is non-massacre, obviously, and will centre on the evolving relationship between Sakura and her best friend's brother. I chose this setting deliberately because the usual clich****é**** is about childhood friends becoming lovers. In this fic the childhood friends will stay just childhood friends and Sasuke and Itachi won't be becoming rivals for Sakura's attention. Too clich****é****.**

**I made Sasuke and Sakura extremely close for another reason. I'm sure most of you girls know that it would be hard to fall in love with your best friend's brother, no matter if the best friend is male or female and the drama and the suspense it can bring. That's what I'm aiming for. Sakura angsting over her deeper feelings for Itachi because of her close relationship with Sasuke.**

**Shisui is probably completely OOC, but that doesn't matter much to me, because I **_**want**_** him to be a silly prankster. Oh, and he actually goes easy on Sakura most of the time when they spar. She bet him occasionally, but the rest is him having a huge soft spot on her. And no, he won't be falling for her. He's in a happy relationship with Inuzuka Hana.**

**As for Sasuke and Itachi's parents and the rest of the Clan... Well, we'll see how things develop. I'm not sure.**

**I will be bringing in Akatsuki and Madara, later on. As for everything else, I'm still not completely sure, though I do know the end, and have written the end scene. Everything that leads to that point will evolve itself.**

**Well I hope that you find this story promising and that you will support me with it. Every thought you may have about this, good or bad, feel free to tell me, please review and let me know your opinion.**

**And a small warning, this will be the shortest chapter. I'm still revising some things in the second one, but it'll be no less than twenty pages on MSWord.**

**So, again, please, please, please, review and tell me what you think of my first thread into ItaSaku. It would mean the world to me.**

**I hope you enjoyed this, till next chapter,**

**Jas**


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